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Oberlin
Community Service is Grateful
To
the Editors:
I would like to thank The Oberlin Review for focusing some of its
coverage in the Nov. 30 issue on work the Oberlin community has
undertaken in an attempt to have a positive impact on the lives
of Oberlin School children.
The article, however, neglects to mention that the Math tutoring
programs it refers to are coordinated by Oberlin Community Services.
For those unfamiliar, Oberlin Community Services (OCS), an organization
independent of Oberlin College, coordinates services for low-income
persons in the Oberlin area. Its major programs are General Emergency
Assistance to low-income persons in southern Lorain County, aid
for food, utility bills, prescriptions, transportation and clothing,
and Academic Tutoring for public school students.
The OCS tutoring program is one of several established programs
offering college students a constructive service-learning experience,
while at the same time enriching the educational experiences of
younger students. The program is structured, supervised, and integrated
with the school curriculum. Tutors work with either one or two students,
allowing us to individualize instruction and build effective relationships
between tutors and tutees. We work with the Oberlin College Center
for Service and Learning to provide tutor training, and we conduct
ongoing supervision and evaluation. The OCS tutoring program addresses
an important, ongoing school and community need. It has been a successful
long-term collaboration of Oberlin Community Services, the Oberlin
Schools, and Oberlin College. In its tenth year of operation, it
has helped the Oberlin students to pass the Ohio fourth, sixth and
ninth grade Proficiency Tests. This summer, 44 percent (eight) of
the 18 students who took the ninth grade test at the end of the
summer workshop passed the test and their major obstacle to graduation
was removed. Since 1992, OCS has supplied over 20,000 hours of tutoring
over 700 public school students.
For tutors, we rely on Federal Work Study students and both college
and community volunteers. If you are interested in being paid to
work or volunteering in the Oberlin Schools and learning more about
your community, please contact Oberlin Community Services at 774-6579.
–Josh
Rosen
OC ’01
Oberlin Community Services
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